Friday, August 15, 2008

Why Anime?

I have been puzzled by the love of Anime for a long time. I never quite understood why it became so popular, why it's limited animation techniques became a short hand in American television, and why so many animation fans had this extremist, and overzealous opinion of its value. I was almost always too busy to care, but it has continued to be popular so I started asking around. The overwhelming response was "because it is different", that's it. The second most popular response is that it is more creative and bizarre in terms of story and therefore more entertaining than its American counterpart. Makes perfect sense to me and why shouldn't it. As an American born animator, I like many Americans have been brainwashed to believe that animation can only be done the Disney way. (Thank G-d for Warner Bros and Bugs, otherwise, I might have plucked my eyes out with a fork. I mean how many Broadway musical fairy tales can one culture endure. It's the Disney formula, isn't it? (not including Pixar). So if Anime provides something different, isn't time to set the bar higher? We have hardly scratched the surface of "what can be different in animation". Actually, I see very few people trying, but imagine how popular you could be. I tried to do something different with Longhair and Doubledome and it received one of the best focus tests ever ignored in Cartoon Network history. Different must be good.